Since the A6000 camera was available in early 2014, there has been endless web forum discussions on battery issues with little dependable inputs. Now 4 plus years later, I'm surprised no one with electronic technical skills has bothered to perform actual battery tests. Sony has an AC battery adapter AC-PW20 that allows powering these alpha cameras with an AC power cord via that adapter that uses a dummy battery plug. It converts the ac to a nominal 7.4 volts dc connecting that to the dummy battery plug end that fits into a camera. Someone opened up the dummy battery end and also found a current shunt measuring circuit so it is not quite a straight through connection.
Jim Kasson has run exactly such tests, however only on FF bodies. I remember someone running a few standby power tests and finding intermittent cases where drain was unusually high. I think it was someone other than Jim, I'm not sure.
I worked as an electronic tech 4+ decades and could easily straighten out how much current is drawn at specific voltages in specific camera modes performing various operations. All I would need is the power adapter with which I would remove the shunt and insert a DMM meter in current mode while also monitoring the dc voltage at the same point. Those performing the camera engineering power design certainly know those values however no camera manufacturers ever tell the public any of that information. Although I could do such, I have had little incentive to bother much less buy the adapter however am making this input expecting someone else out there will do so haha just to stop the endless BS. Note this is a rather trivial electronic task.
The issue is that some of these problems are intermittent. I can tell you, without a doubt (using a logic analyzer):
Logic power is NOT removed from the lens when the camera is turned to "off". This is done to facilitate quickly resuming operation when the switch is turned "on". If a lens is not removed, instead of going through a full initialization sequence, the camera goes through a quick resume sequence.
Breaking the connection of LENS_XDETECT will forcefully depower the lens. Service manuals for older NEX bodies can be found, they all have hardware interlocks that prevent lens power from being applied unless that pin is grounded by the lens.
Reconnecting the lens will not cause power to be reapplied until the camera switch is flipped to ON.
There are well documented issues with some cheaper adapters that don't properly implement whatever suspend sequence Sony uses to put a lens to "sleep". These adapters are known to cause severe standby drain. The Techart Pro is one such unit. TAP's advice is to pull the battery, quickly disengaging/reengaging the lens is much easier.
I suspect even some "full native" lenses might occasionally fail to suspend properly. I don't recall ever seeing someone state that they continued to see phantom drain if they disengaged/reengaged their lens prior to storage.
What has been more of interest is how long specific batteries last. I bought 19 of the NP-FW50 batteries of 4 different types and am close to completing a battery test on all my batteries with 20 ohm resistive loads that is going to surprise numbers of those spouting BS. Of my batteries, only one has gone bad and the rest are probably as near as good as when they were new. An Excel sheet with details later.
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David
I would not be surprised if the battery that performs the best is actually the one most frequently used. Storing Li-Ion batteries at 100% SoC is bad for the battery and I'm guessing that a lot of people get the third-party batteries as "backups" and don't discharge them for storage. Hell - I don't even do this, and because of this, I'll accept that some of my "less used" batteries may be mostly shot, regardless of whether they're official Sony or third-party. (My guess is, most people "use" their branded battery the most, and the third-parties are backups.)
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